GUIDO GUmiCELLI 203

The sun strikes full upon the mud all day :

It remains vile, nor the sun's worth is less.
' By race I am gentle,' the proud man doth say;
He is the mud, the sun is gentleness.

Let no man predicate
That aught the name of gentleness should have,

Even in a king's estate,
Except the heart there be a gentle man's.

The star-beam lights the wave,—
Heaven holds the star and the star's radiance. 40

God, in the understanding of high Heaven,

Burns more than in our sight the living sun:
There to behold His Face unveiled is given ;
And Heaven, whose will is homage paid to One

Fulfils the things which live
In God, from the beginning excellent.

So should my lady give
That truth which in her eyes is glorified,

On which her heart is bent,
To me whose service waiteth at her side. 50

My lady, God shall ask, f What daredst thou ?'

(When my soul stands with all her acts review'd ;)
c Thou passedst Heaven, into My sight, as now,
To make Me of vain love similitude.

To Me doth praise belong,
And to the Queen of all the realm of grace

Who slayeth fraud and wrong.3
Then may I plead : ' As though from Thee he came,

Love wore an angel's face :
Lord, if I loved her, count it not my shame.' 60